The Gang Of Ghosts actor and his wife are unaffected by the protests in Chandigarh

Anupam Kher says neither he and nor his wife Kirron Kher were disturbed when she was greeted with eggs and black flags on her arrival in Chandigarh as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. Kirron landed in Chandigarh on Tuesday and was welcomed with slogans and had eggs thrown at her by protesters who felt she was an “outsider”. Anupam, who was with his wife in Chandigarh by chance, laughed off the importance given to the protesters.

“There were just maybe seven to eight protesters…a very negligible number of people. And I say, everyone has the right to protest in a democracy. Neither Kirron nor I minded the protest,” he said.

But why the protests? “They probably felt there were others more qualified for the tickets. But they must understand that if the high command thinks a particular candidate is eligible, then we must all respect that decision and not throw tantrums, like a child who has been denied a toy,” said the veteran actor.

Anupam dismissed the enormity of the protests. “It was nothing. So much hue and cry is being made about a handful of protesters. What about the 500 supporters came to support and cheer Kirron at the airport? As for reports that eggs were thrown at her, please show me those eggs. I’d like to make omelettes of them,” he said.

Anupam says his wife is not the least shaken by the protests. “She is a strong woman, She is getting ready for a long innings in politics,” said the actor, who has “no plans of ever getting into active politics”.

“One politician in the family is enough,” he quipped.

Anupam was in Chandigarh to promote his film Gang Of Ghosts, which releases tomorrow. “What a beautiful coincidence. I am glad I could be here to see my wife take her initial steps in this new phase in her life,” he said.

The actor has hired a tutor to improve his Punjabi diction for the Abhinav Kashyap film

Ranbir Kapoor, who is on cloud nine after the success of Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (YJHD), is leaving no stone unturned to give his best in Besharam. The Bollywood heartthrob is polishing his Punjabi diction for the comedy.

“They are shooting a lot in Chandigarh, so Ranbir has been learning the language. It is crucial for his character, so a tutor has been hired. He’s been practicing to speak like the locals there – in terms of usage of words and their pronunciations,” said a source.

Directed by Abhinav Kashyap, the movie also features Ranbir’s parents – actors Neetu Singh and Rishi Kapoor – along with Pallavi Sharda. Besharam is set for an October 2 release.

“Since YJHD has released and become a huge success, he’s relaxed and at ease. Besharam will be his most massy film so far, and it’ll have him sharing screen space with his parents for the first time. Even when the film’s poster was released, it generated a lot of curiosity,” the source added.

Several farmhouses, including that of Bollywood singer Mika, came under the scanner for commercial activity

On March 28, the district administration in Gurgaon sealed several illegal farmhouses, including that of popular Bollywood singer Mika Singh, in village Roz-ka-Gujjar. A state government spokesman said in Chandigarh that the farmhouses were illegally running small tourism units and other commercial activities.

“As per the orders of Deputy Commissioner PC Meena, a team of local officers, including SDM (sub-divisional magistrate), Gurgaon South, Vivek Kalia, District Town Planner Anil Dabas, Divisional Forest Officer Ranjeeta, officials of the revenue department and Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) with the help of police inspected the farmhouses. On finding commercial activities there, these farmhouses were sealed,” the spokesman said.

Meena had directed district officials to inspect the Roz-ka-Gujjar village area in Sohna tehsil of the district for violations by illegal farm houses. The National Green Tribunal had raised objection to running of commercial activities in village Roz-ka-Gujjar, saying that 75 percent area falls under forest area.

In February this year, the district authorities recovered 10 acres of land from singer Daler Mehndi, elder brother of Mika. The court of the SDM at Sohna in Haryana had served Daler a 15-day notice for another 100 acres in his possession. The court restored the possession of 10 acres under occupation of the singer to the Sohna town municipal committee.

“In the light of tourism activities going on in the area, which is a non-forestry activity, notices were issued and the owners were asked to stop commercial activities,” the spokesman said.

Y-Films’ new film Mere Dad Ki Maruti features Ram Kapoor and Saqib Saleem

Comedy movie Mere Dad Ki Maruti, featuring Saqib Saleem, will release March 15, 2013. The first trailer of the movie, which will see Ram Kapoor in the role of Saqib’s strict father, was released with late Yash Chopra’s Jab Tak Hai Jaan on November 13.

Directed by debutante Ashima Chibber, the movie is set in the backdrop of Chandigarh and a loud Punjabi family where a boy loses his father’s car.

Saqib was last seen in the 2011 release Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge, which was released under the Y-Films banner.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court also told the village council to repay Rs 8 crore to Ghai

Bollywood filmmaker Subhash Ghai suffered another jolt Tuesday when the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed the allotment of a plot to him by the Haryana government for setting up a film and acting institute. Ghai was ordered to return the 20-acre land in Badhsa village of Jhajjar district to the village council. A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Jasbir Singh and Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain said that giving the village common land to Ghai was not serving any public purpose.

The court told the village council to return the over Rs 8 crore that it took from the filmmaker’s company Mukta Arts in October 2010. The controversial land is located about 50km from Delhi. Ghai bought the land from the council after it passed a resolution to give him the village common land. The Haryana government, headed by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, had permitted Ghai to purchase the land from the council.

The court quashed the allotment on a plea filed by retired teacher and Badhsa villager Nafe Singh. On May 29, the court had stayed work on the land. “The decision to sell the village land to Mukta Arts was taken under pressure and not by free will. The village council headed by Sarpanch Ranbir Singh and his team did it all under the state government’s pressure,” said petitioner’s counsel Deepak Balyan.

This is the second setback for Ghai and his film and acting school Whistling Woods International. The Andhra Pradesh High Court and the Bombay High Court had in January and February quashed the allotments of land to Ghai’s film institute near Hyderabad and Mumbai. The allotments were quashed on the grounds that the state governments had favoured Ghai. The Haryana land allotment was earlier challenged in a court in Bahadurgarh town, but the plea was dismissed. Ghai announced in October 2010 that he would set up the film institute in Haryana with a Rs 100 crore investment.

The AISSF is upset with the depiction of Sikhs in Ajay Devgn’s film Son of Sardaar

Claiming that Sikhs were being shown in a bad light in the film Son of Sardaar, the All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF) has urged the clergy to take action against actor-producer Ajay Devgn.

In a letter to Akal Takht head Gurbachan Singh, AISSF president Karnail Singh demanded action against Devgn for hurting the religious sentiments of Sikhs. The Akal Takht is the highest temporal seat of the Sikh religion.

Singh Tuesday said the film, to be released in November 2012, had blasphemous remarks against Sikhs. The AISSF has sought registration of a police case against the filmmakers. “The film’s trailer has demeaning dialogues,” Karnail Singh said. “In the film, the lead actor wears a Sikh turban but has the tattoo of a Hindu god on his chest. This is against Sikh principles,” he added.

Singh said they had sent a legal notice to the filmmakers and asked to delete the objectionable scenes. But Devgn had not responded to the notice, he said.

The lead actor talks of life after the show went off air on March 16

Sargun Mehta may have won your hearts playing the fiery Phulwa in the show of the same name on Colors, but in real life, she is more of a chilled out person. Her popular show is off air and she is yet to sign another one, but hey, no worries! Life afterPhulwa, she says, “is like a vacation”. “I am just chilling around, watching movies and hanging out with my friends. I plan to go visit my parents in Chandigarh for a month.” That is the best part of the show having come to an end as her busy schedule didn’t allow her any time to be with mom and dad. She is not unduly concerned that she hasn’t signed any new show or that time away would mean she will miss out on some good offers. “This is how the industry works. Your show will end one day or another. It’s tough but it’s part of life in this profession. I am not insecure (about getting work),” she says. “I had not signed Phulwa when my previous shows had ended. Yet I got Phulwa which was a professional step up for me. I got to know more about myself, I grew with the show, with the work I did and the people I met.”

She is looking at offers but admits, “Daily shows can take a toll on your health with its long hours. There are mood swings. During Phulwa, I never had time to go to the gym. I would have really fixed meals and walk around a lot between shots.”

That was both before and after her character graph changed from a fearsome dacoit to a more homely wife. “I was not happy with the change. I loved the dacoit character and would have liked it to last longer. But I knew it had to change one day. It’s not a film. Viewers get bored watching the same thing every day. And the housewives who are watching the show are not going to pick up a gun at any point,” she explains.

Sargun can vouch for it as she too watches all the soaps avidly. “I would record the shows when I was away at shoot and come home and watch them. I have to know what’s happening on all the soaps. I keep track of all of them. It’s not difficult as with a soap, even if you watch only ten minutes, you know what’s happening.” It’s a good time for television viewers and the industry. “TV is obviously growing, there has to be experimentation. People have become more open minded but we are yet to get out of the saas bahu mindset.”

Sargun doesn’t mind it and is open to doing all kinds of roles. “I also love reality shows,” she says. Right now though, all she can think about is her trip and is looking forward to spending time in Chandigarh. “I don’t know how to compare the two cities. Mumbai has more of a buzz but Chandigarh is peaceful. There is no nightlife there. Work cultures are different in both cities. I’ve started loving Mumbai but when I retire I want to live in peace in Chandigarh.”

Hollywood director Kathryn Bigelow, who won the Oscar for The Hurt Locker at the 82nd Academy Awards, is shooting a film based on the killing of terror monger Osama Bin Laden by the US Navy Seals. To make the film look real she would have had to shoot at Pakistan but as that wasn’t possible, due to which she chose to shoot some scenes at Chandigarh. She tried hard to get permissions from the officials at Pakistan but couldn’t manage to convince them. To bring more authenticity to the scene, the filmmaker used license plates of vehicles from Lahore, some hoardings and there were many people wearing Pathan suits, roaming around the streets etc. Buzz is that Brad Pitt will also come to India to shoot for the film. Tentatively titled Zero Dark 30, the film will be released later this year.